WHAT IS EASTER FOR ME

Hi to all participating in my competition on WHAT IS EASTER FOR YOU?

To have all understand and why I believe the way I do is because I'm Catholic.

To understand Easter is to understand the beginning of it.

Starting on Ash Wednesday day

Why is Ash Wednesday before Easter?

In the Christian tradition, Ash Wednesday marks the start of the holy season of Lent, a time for reflection and repentance in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Christians from many denominations recognize the holy season for 40 days leading up to Easter.

By observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate Jesus Christ's sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.

The use of ashes is to remind parishioners of their mortality. During Ash Wednesday service, the phrase, "Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” from the Book of Genesis is traditionally employed.

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19), or, “Repent and believe in the Good News” (Mark 1:15).

Genesis 3:19: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

Lent is a time of penance a time of sacrifice.

The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, mortifying the flesh, repentance of sins, almsgiving, simple living, and self-denial.

That's why around lent many will not eat meat on Fridays as lent starts as a form of sacrifice what you want to offer as a penance and sacrifice for God. Not needed to do but to those that wish to show strong faith and giving up something that is hard to let go of. Servess ones faith stronger.

Abstinence is a form of asceticism, the practice of self-denial in order to grow in holiness. Jesus asks his disciples to deny themselves and take up their Cross (Mt 16:24). Abstinence is a sober way to practice simplicity and austerity, to deny the cravings of our bodies to honor Jesus who practiced the ultimate form of self-denial when he gave his body for us on the Cross. 

Since Jesus sacrificed his flesh for us on Good Friday, we refrain from eating flesh meat in his honor on Fridays. Flesh meat includes the meat of mammals and poultry, and the main foods that come under this heading are beef, pork, chicken, and turkey.

Again it's not a have to do,  the act of eating meat in and of itself is not wrong, and not enough to get your soul into any trouble with the Almighty. Abstaining from meat on Fridays is not a moral teaching of the Catholic Church, on par with not using contraception, not committing adultery, or coveting your neighbor's possessions.

You do this sacrifice if you want to sacrifice as Jesus Christ did for us in the cross to die for our sins.

UNDERSTAND PALM SUNDAY BEFORE EASTER SUNDAY

The Sunday before Easter is what the Christian world traditionally calls Palm Sunday. This day commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem the Sunday before His death.

Before entering Jerusalem for the final time, Jesus asked two of His disciples to bring Him a donkey’s foal, also known as a colt (see Matthew 21:1–7). In fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding the colt (see Zechariah 9:9).
 
Many people came to greet Jesus and covered His path with palm leaves, flowering branches and cloth. Recognizing Him as their King, they shouted praises such as “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Luke 19:38) and “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matthew 21:9).

Though many of Jesus’s followers thought He would save them from Roman oppression, He came to earth for a more eternal purpose — to save all humankind from sin and death. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all God’s children “may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel” (Articles of Faith 1:3).

During April 2020 general conference — the most recent conference held on Palm Sunday weekend — Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained the significance of Palm Sunday.

“As Zechariah and the Psalmist prophetically foretold, our Lord entered Jerusalem riding a colt as multitudes knowingly cried, ‘Hosanna in the highest’ (Matthew 21:9). Hosanna means ‘save now,’” Elder Gong said. He noted that from Old Testament times, the waving of palm branches accompanied the chanting of “Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord” (see Bible Dictionary, “Hosanna,” and Psalm 118:25) (“Hosanna and Hallelujah—The Living Jesus Christ: The Heart of Restoration and Easter”).

UNDERSTANDING THE PASSOVER BEFORE EASTER

The connection between Easter and Passover is cleared stated in the Gospels. Jesus and his apostles ate the Last Supper— a Passover seder — before he was crucified, an rose from the dead three days later. 

The moon's phases determine Easter's date. Western Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox, while Eastern Easter is after Passover.

When Emperor Constantine stopped the persecution of Christians in the fourth century, he declared that pascha would be officially celebrated on the Sunday after Passover. “Several centuries later, the holiday was no longer called pascha but Easter and the date was modified to align with the solar calendar.”

Pasha is used to describe Easter .
pascha is an Aramaic word used multiple times in the New Testament to describe items involved in the Passover. First, pascha referred to the paschal lamb or paschal sacrifice, the lamb that Israelites killed to spread its blood over their doors while living in Egypt (Exodus 12:1-27). That night, the Lord came over Egypt to kill every firstborn son but did not enter any house with the blood over the door. (Exodus 12:28-30) As a result of this act, Pharoah finally agreed to Moses’ demand that the Israelites be freed from slavery (Exodus 12:31-42).

The four gospels use the word pascha various times to refer to the Passover, such as Matthew 26:18 when Jesus instructed his disciples, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’”

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the term pascha took on a new meaning. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia explains that early Christians kept celebrating Passover, since they saw Jesus as “the true paschal lamb” and didn’t need to invent a new feast or holiday to celebrate his resurrection. However, many early Christians did add a fast to their Passover ceremony, usually “ending at the hour of the crucifixion, i.e., at 3 o’clock on Friday… [or] continuing until the hour of the resurrection before dawn on Easter morning.”

Maundy Thursday marks the night of the Last Supper - the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples before he was crucified on what is now known as Good Friday. Maundy Thursday takes its name from the Latin word 'mandatum' meaning commandment.

Now in the Bible it's hard to pin point if the last supper happened on Wednesday or Thursday.

There was the Last Supper, Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ arrest, his first inquisition at the High Priest’s house, his trial before the Sanhedrin, the confirmation of his death sentence, his handing over to Pilate, the transfer to Herod then the return to Pilate, then the scourging and crucifixion. All of that within six hours or at most nine hours from midnight to nine the next morning?

I feel they had to have an extra day to do all things before his crucifixion on Friday that took place at 3pm.

Very simply, the solution is that the Jews of Jesus’ time were using two different liturgical calendars. The old calendar which we believe was used by Jesus and his disciples called for the Passover to be celebrated that year on the Wednesday. The establishment Jews in Jerusalem used the new calendar which had the Passover lambs slaughtered on Friday and Passover was the next day. If the Last Supper was on Wednesday night, not Thursday, then there is enough time for all the events to have taken place AND for the Jewish laws about trials and executions to be observed.

WHAT IS GOOD FRIDAY AND HOW DO WE KNOW JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON?

Good Friday' comes from the sense 'pious, holy' of the word "good".

Even with that aside, I think the failure to see why we call it "Good" Friday stems from an inability to recognize religion as something that transcends ordinary reality. Jesus was abused, tortured, and murdered in an absolute travesty of justice : you're right, that SHOULD NOT be "good". But that's exactly the point. Because out of something so tragic, God gave us peace, mercy, forgiveness, life, and love, we must all the more remember to insist on calling the cross "good", beautiful, our joy! This is what it means to understand the message of Christianity.

Yes Jesus was brutilized is such a way unimaginable. Hard to think of it as good but we rejoice cause he died for our sins to save us from being condemned. It is good and beautiful sacrifice Jesus did for us and that is the true meaning of "Pure Love".  Is why we call it Good Friday.  To remember what he did in his memory and replicate the "PASSION OF CHRIST" on Good Friday. To feel as close to Jesus Christ death on Friday but promising in 3 days to come back on his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

HOW DO WE KNOW JESUS DIED ON A FRIDAY?
John also mentions that Jesus was crucified on “the day of Preparation” (John 19:31), that is, the Friday before the Sabbath of Passover week (Mark 15:42).

 It is Friday because they then record all four of the gospels that the next day was the Sabbath and that the day after the Sabbath was the first day of the week

UNDERSTANDING THE WORD EASTER

The English word Easter, which parallels the German word Ostern, is of uncertain origin. One view, expounded by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century, was that it derived from Eostre, or Eostrae, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. 

There is now widespread consensus that the word derives from the Christian designation of Easter week as in albis, a Latin phrase that was understood as the plural of alba (“dawn”) and became eostarum in Old High German, the precursor of the modern German and English term. The Latin and Greek Pascha (“Passover”) provides the root for Pâques, the French word for Easter.

The story of the resurrection is all over the New Testament (NT). But the Bible never commands Christians to celebrate Easter. Except in the King James Version’s (KJV) translation of Acts 12:4, the word “Easter” is never found in the Bible. Even in this one occurrence of the word, it is a seventeenth-century translation of the Greek text, and Easter was already a holiday. The KJV translators were simply using the word “Easter” because it was widely-understood by the KJV’s original readers to be the holiday celebrating Jesus’s resurrection. The actual word used in the Greek text of Acts 12:4 is “pascha” (Πάσχα) which means “Passover,” referring to the Jewish celebration commemorating God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Exodus 12). Jesus’s death coincided with the celebration of Passover, symbolizing him as the “Passover lamb” whose blood protects believers from God’s wrath just as the original lambs’ blood protected the Israelites in Egypt when they covered their doorposts in that blood. This is why Christians speak of “the blood of the lamb” in reference to Jesus.

After the writing of the Bible, Christians thought that once a year the church should celebrate Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Initially, it appears that this was done on the same day. However, eventually these two celebrations were separated and Easter was celebrated on Sunday.

Many Christians wonder if they should celebrate Easter if it has pagan influence. Some prefer to celebrate “Resurrection Sunday” instead of “Easter Sunday.” Whatever you do, remember that God never commanded us to celebrate Easter. Rather, the NT seems to indicate that early Christians regularly celebrated the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42), which itself commemorated Jesus’s death, burial, resurrection, and second coming (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). This seems to have been a regular practice rather than one limited to a special Easter Sunday (Acts 20:7).

There is nothing wrong with Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies as long as the focus of the holiday is on Jesus. Whatever you call Easter, the proper focus must be on Jesus Christ and his resurrection.

UNDERSTANDING EASTER EGGS
The egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection. Just as Jesus rose from the tomb, the egg symbolized new life emerging from the eggshell. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. The egg-coloring tradition has continued even in modern secular nations.

Easter eggs represent the empty tomb from which Jesus resurrected.

Easter eggs are handed out to symbolize Jesus’ resurrection: The hard shell represents the sealed tomb and the cracking of the egg represents Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

In their traditional form, Easter eggs are meant to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new life Christians receive through him. For this reason, they are also known as the eggs of resurrection.

UNDERSTANDING THE EASTER BUNNY

The Easter Bunny may not appear in the Good Book but he shares a connection with Christ and eggs. Like rabbit eggs that represented new life and fertility